When most people think about Los Angeles, they think about Hollywood, movie stars, scenic boulevards, and the beautiful weather of Southern California. Long before there was a Hollywood embedded into a thriving metropolis, however, there were oil fields.

Just because Los Angeles went on to become one of the most densely populated urban areas in the United States doesn’t mean all that oil went ignored. All around the citizens of L.A., many of them oblivious to the fact, there are nearly a hundred active oil wells. Hidden in four windowless office buildings, these oil wells are quietly (and stealthily) pumping up oil from deep beneath the city.